4/2/20 Report - Juana and Carlos Pillars and Waves Find. Tree of Life. Bottle Stopper. Assumptions and Uncertainty.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Cleaned Early Pillars and Waves Cob Found by Terry S.

Photo by Terry S.

You might remember this find.  We saw it before it was cleaned.

Found by Terry S., we wondered if it might be the earliest coin found on the Treasure Coast, and concluded that if not, it was certainly among the earliest.  These coins were not dated and even with the assayer mark it is difficult to put a specific date on them.

Terry had West Bay Trading Company clean it for him.  We can now see good detail.  To the left of the shield is the M for the Mexico mint, and to the right of the shield is the assayer mark, "G."

Here is the other side of the same coin.

Mexico Two-Real After Cleaning

Find and photo by Terry S.

Recently I showed illustrations of other coins from the reign of Juana and Carlos.

On this side of Terry's cob, you can see the two dots between the pillars, indicating that it is a two-reale.  This coin looks most similar to type 69 (p. 27) in the Calico, Calico, and Trigo book that I often cite.  That book presents 11 varieties (or types) of Juana and Carlos Mexico two-reales, including those marked with assayer's marks of R, G, F, P, A, S, L and O.

Experts agree with what I see in the Calico book and date it to around 1940 - 1948.

Great detail on a very early coin and a great find by Terry S.

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Source: LiveScience.com.  See link below.

A towering ponderosa pine discovered in the center of Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, known as the "Plaza Tree," was once thought to symbolize life and the center of the world for an ancient pueblo town. But new research suggests it may have been just a giant log no one bothered to move for 800 years, and maybe didn't hold significant meaning...

For over a hundred years, people assumed the tree had meaning; it was regarded as a "tree of life" according to one researcher, or a "world tree." The solitary tree was once thought to represent the living "center of the world" for the people of Pueblo Bonito, the largest of Chaco Canyon's "great houses," which was occupied between A.D. 850 and 1150. Some speculations placed the tree at the center of a religious cult, and an illustration of a growing "Plaza Tree of Pueblo Bonito" appears in a brochure from the National Park Service...

Eventually fantasy gives way to good sense.

"I actually have no idea whether it did, does, or ever had religious significance," Guiterman told Live Science in an email. "I don't know what it was used for, or why it was located in the plaza where it was found."...


That is refreshing.
Here is the link for more about that story.

https://www.livescience.com/chaco-canyon-famous-tree-of-life-mystery.html


I've mentioned before that when they can't identify the use of an object, archaeologists seem to interpret the object as having some religious significance or being a toy.   Its fun to think about things like that, but when you don't know, just say so, or at least make it clear that you are just guessing.

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I took a little walk the other day.  Didn't see a single person, so was suitably socially distanced and found this little object.  It looks like a bottle stopper, but has "57" on the top.

It is a about the diameter of a half dollar.  I think it might be for a Heinz 57 product.  I found a photo of one for sale listed as a Heinz 57 bottle stopper, but I don't know the age, product or type of bottle it goes with.

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Yesterday I posted a list of beach closings.  William K. sent this addition.

Read your guide today. I live in Indian Harbour Beach and the beaches are not closed here. The access parking lots to the public beaches in Satelite Beach, Melbourne Beach etc. have been barricaded, but you can park nearby and walk to the beach. This past weekend "they" closed the beaches for the weekend only from 11:00-16:00.

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The most entertaining and informative things I saw all week was when Fauci and Birx stumbled around trying to present and explain their graphs/models to the press. 

We are very much accustomed to watching the hurricane models every year and are very familiar 

with the cone of uncertainty.  We know how inexact (wrong) the models can be, and the meteorologists and public has learned the huge cost, psychological/social and otherwise, that can result.   

The equivalent of the cone of uncertainty on the epidemiological model that they presented ( I think it is referred to as the Imperial model) was huge.  Nobody pointed that out.  

They didn't bring those models and graphs back to the last briefing.  I'd be surprised if we see them again.  They raised more questions in the briefing than they answered.  It forced them to defend the unproven assumptions and arbitrariness of the model they selected.  Birx admitted to the public their model was skewed by the abundance of New York data, which is the most extreme and atypical case.  Admitting that the data is skewed wasn't the bad thing.  The bad thing was that they did not make clear why they chose what appears to be one of the most extreme models and they did not explain their assumptions and the degree of uncertainty involved.  Nonetheless, their stumbling attempt to present it all to the public was a good thing.  I'm sure they will learn from it, as we all have learned from the hurricane models we watch every year.

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I very much enjoy epistemology and studying models and looking data, and the assumptions and levels of uncertainty.  It is very much the same in meteorology and epidemiology.  Investigating the underlying processes is the fun of it to me.  It is the same with treasure hunting.  It is about problem solving and creativity.   At the center of it all are the same philosophical and psychological questions.

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The other day I mentioned something like, asking Dr. Fauci if he would need more data would be like asking a car salesman if you should buy a new car.   But there is one time a car salesman will not say you should buy a new car.  …   When he is selling used cars.
   

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It looks like the surf predictions for Sunday will be a foot or so smaller than previously predicted.

Happy hunting (whether it is in the search for knowledge or objects - same thing),
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/14/19 Report - Two-Piece Lead and Pewter Bottle Caps from 1600s. Metal Detectable Bottles. Medical Infusion Bottle. American Eagle Gold Coins.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Neck Ring Portion of Old Two-Piece  Lead Bottle Cap (?) Find.

The Odyssey Virtual Museum has the following to say about two-piece lead and pewter bottle caps from the 16 and 1700s.

A total of 127 fragments of glass were excavated from the “Tortugas” shipwreck, including square-sectioned case bottles. The bases of these bottles are all medium olive green in color and contain air bubbles. Glass rims and neck sherds were recovered still attached to 14 lead screw collars and caps that originally sealed some of the “Tortugas” ship’s bottle mouths...

The two-piece permanent lead collars and caps that originally closed the bottles’ mouths feature everted sides and a horizontal shoulder surmounted by a short vertical mouth. Each collar, 1.4-1.9cm high, is subdivided into two seamless elements: at top a narrow screw thread (W. 1.5-1.9cm, Th. 0.2cm) consisting of three convex external edges between two inner recessed threads for receipt of a lead cap, and below the main section (max W. 2.1-3.3cm, bottom W. 1.9-2.9cm, Th. 0.2-0.4cm) that originally covered and protected the glass bottle neck and rim. The two zones are separated by a horizontal ledge, furrowed on the lower edge. The bottom edge of the inner diameter, reflecting the bottle’s neck diameter, ranges from 1.2-1.7cm. The collar was a permanent component cast over the bottle.

Especially significant for the case of the “Tortugas” shipwreck are the identical glass bottle bases and lead bottle caps associated with two of other vessels of the 1622 Tierra Firme fleet. As in the case of the “Tortugas” wreck, square-sectioned bottles are the most common glasswares aboard the Atocha. The Margarita wreck site also yielded a number of bottle closures comparable to the “Tortugas” examples, evidence that the same products were aboard this ship as well.

Similar glasswares have been excavated from other Spanish shipwrecks. An intact square-sectioned green bottle was stocked on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, sunk off Hispaniola in 1641. Pewter caps from square-sectioned bottles were recovered from the San Martin, the Almiranta of the Honduras fleet en route from Havana to Spain in 1618, and were still in use a century later on the 1715 fleet wrecked off Florida. On the basis of this evidence, is it reasonable to propose that one line of lead-capped square bottles conceivably may have been manufactured in Spain, mirroring in glass the overwhelming dominance of Seville wares amongst the "Tortugas"ceramics.

See: http://www.odysseysvirtualmuseum.com/products/Lead-Screw-Collars-and-Caps.html

That is what I think this find is, but am not yet positive.  While the Odyssey Virtual Museum shows several examples of such lead collars, I have not been able to find amywhere a photo of a bottle with the entire two-piece lead or pewter cap intact.  If you know where I can find such a picture, please let me know.

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Sometimes people who metal detect aren't much interested in old bottles or jars, but bottles can have good value, as can their contents.  My best cache finds were contained in old canning jars.  Glass containers can also help you put a date range on a site.

Some bottles can be detected by a metal detector even without anything in them.  They can have metal parts, usually stoppers, caps or lids, but also handles and other things.

Here is a nice example.

Hutchinson Soda Bottle With Stopper.

"Hutch" bottles can be valuable, especially if they have embossing for a soda, mineral water or something like that.

The stopper in this one is metal and rubber.

Bottles and canning jars can have a variety of wire attachments for the closure.  Here are a couple example of that.

Bottle and Jar with Closures.

There are also many bottles and jars with the more modern screw tops that can be interesting.  Here is a medical bottle that looks like it was used for the infusion of dextrose.  That was before they used the bags they use today.

Infusion Bottle

This infusion bottle has a rubber seal with a glass tube that extends nearly to the bottom of the bottle.  I didn't capture that very good in the photo, but you can maybe see the glass rod which is pretty much hidden by the corner of the bottle.

The measurements are upside down as the bottle sits because it would be hung upside down.

Cap on Infusion Bottle.

The bottom reads "Cutter Laboratories" and "Berkeley California."

I saw a number of these for sale on eBay, but none with the cap and glass rod or tube intact.

So from as early as the 1600s metal parts were used on bottles.  That obviously means you will be able to detect them with a metal detector.

Again, please let me know if you know where I can see a photo of a 16 or 1700s two-piece lead or pewter bottle cap on the bottle or neck.

Here is a great link to a fantastic web site on bottle closures, which shows examples and date ranges for most bottles through the last few centuries.  Very detailed and helpful.

https://sha.org/bottle/closures.htm#Inside Thread Stopper

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WASHINGTON – The United States Mint (Mint) will open sales for the 2019 American Eagle One Ounce Gold Uncirculated Coin (product code 19EH) on June 13 at noon EDT.

This coin is a collector version of the Mint’s American Eagle Gold Bullion Coin. Struck at the United States Mint at West Point, the obverse (heads) features a version of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ full-length figure of Liberty with flowing hair, holding a torch in her right hand and an olive branch in her left. The reverse (tails) features a male eagle carrying an olive branch flying above a nest containing a female eagle and eaglets...

Here is the link.

https://www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/united-states-mint-american-eagle-2019-one-ounce-gold-uncirculated-coin-goes-on-sale-on-june-13

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net